Valkyrie's Lesbian Lover Is a Thor: Ragnarok Easter Egg

4 months ago

Thor: Ragnarok is the biggest movie in the world right now. Considering it’s a very well-reviewed Marvel movie, that’s not at all a surprise. There’s a lot to love about it and, as with any superhero movie of this nature, there’s probably a few things you missed while watching it the first time. For example, did you catch who Valkyrie’s female lover was? Nobody would blame you if you didn’t, but she’s in the movie, according to Tessa Thompson.

Warning: spoilers ahead for Thor: Ragnarok. In the comics, the character of Valkyrie is bisexual and, ahead of the movie’s release, Tessa Thompson confirmed her version of the character is as well, saying, “She’s bi. And yes, she cares very little about what men think of her. What a joy to play!” However, she later said, “Val is Bi in the comics & I was faithful to that in her depiction. But her sexuality isn’t explicitly addressed in Thor: Ragnarok.” Though, at one point, there was a scene that would have, albeit subtly, addressed it directly.

“Thompson even summoned the courage to pitch Waititi on making Valkyrie bisexual, based on her comic book relationship with anthropologist Annabelle Riggs. [S]he convinced Waititi to shoot a glimpse of a woman walking out of Valkyrie’s bedroom. He kept it in the film as long as he could; eventually the bit had to be cut because it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition. Pay attention to her agony in a flashback where Blanchett’s Goddess of Death murders the rest of Valkyrie’s warrior clan.”

Unfortunately, Marvel couldn’t keep that shot in the movie, but that didn’t prevent Tessa Thompson from playing the character faithfully. It’s possible that Marvel got cold feet when it came to actually featuring a bisexual character on screen, but it’s impossible to say for sure if that’s the case. In any case, during the scene where Hela slaughters the Valkyrie’s fellow warrior clan, the actress says that Hela killed her lover, which is why she was in such pain over the encounter. Here’s what he had to say about it.

“There’s a great shot of me falling back from one of my sisters who’s just been slain. In my mind, that was my lover.”

Marvel definitely is ahead of the curve in terms of the whole cinematic universe thing, but they’ve been a little behind the ball in other areas. Like having a female-led superhero movie, for example. While they didn’t explicitly address it in Thor: Ragnarok, this information from Rolling Stone does prove that their movie did feature a bisexual character. Maybe the next time we see Valkyrie, she’ll get to flaunt it a little more openly on screen. Who knows? If Marvel makes that all female team-up movie that was pitched, there’s a lot of opportunity there.